The Haskell Hackathon is an international, grassroots collaborative coding festival with a simple focus: build and improve Haskell libraries, tools, and infrastructure.

Hac φ will be held July 24-26 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. It is open to all -- you do not have to be a Haskell guru to attend. All you need is a basic knowledge of Haskell, a willingness to learn, and a project you're excited to help with (or a project of your own to work on).

There will be lots of hacking, some talks, good food, and, of course, fun!

July 24-26, 2009, from 2:30-10pm Friday, 10am-10pm Saturday, and 10am-5pm Sunday. There will probably be some talks Saturday afternoon.

Although the hackathon won't officially kick off until 2:30pm on Friday, you are welcome to arrive the evening of Thursday the 23rd or Friday morning if it makes for easier travel. If enough people are around and interested, some sort of activity could be arranged for Thursday evening and/or Friday morning.

SEPTA operates the trains, busses, and trolleys in Philadelphia. The fare is $2 per trip, exact change (so save up your $1s before you come). You can also get tokens (which are cheaper, and don't require exact change to buy) at most big stops. Their site is a little bit unfriendly; I recommend using the Trip Planner to find out what routes to take, then consult the route schedules to find out how often those lines run, so you know how flexible your trip will be.

There are about a dozen cab companies serving various parts of the city; Google will point the way. You will likely be within Center City and University City (sometimes called West Philadelphia) for the duration of your visit. Hailing cabs is also theoretically possible, but I would recommend giving the radio dispatcher a call if you want to take a cab.

There is a SEPTA Airport Express Train (R1) every half hour; the fare is $7 if you pay after you board, and $5 if you pay before you board. If you figure out how to pay before you board, let me know, I've been trying to find out for almost a year now. If coming directly to the hackathon, get off at University City station and walk a block west and a block north; otherwise, go one stop further to 30th Street Station to connect to other forms of transportation.

A cab from the airport to Center City or University City is a flat $28.50 fee (without tip).

Pick out a couple of projects to work on and familiarise yourself with them, or bring your own project(s) to work on. See the projects page for a list of projects people plan to work on. If you plan to work on your own project, be sure to list it on the projects page and set up a public repository if you don't already have one, so that other people can help hack on your project.

Install an up to date Haskell toolchain: at least ghc (preferably 6.10.*) and cabal-install. If you don't already have these installed (or need to install from scratch on the laptop you're bringing), the easiest way is probably to install the Haskell Platform.